Talk:Scarlet Flower

芍?

This is pure speculation, but the "original Chinese name" for this breed might be 芍, which is a single-word term for "peony". Peonies are a traditional symbol of China. However, a.) there are many different Chinese terms that mean "peony"; b.) not all peonies are red; c.) there are many other types of red flowers in China; and d.) the three preceding points all assume that "Scarlet Flower" is a non-literal translation. The main reason why I've pulled this one out of a hat is because unlike, say, 牡丹 (another name for peonies), it is a single word, and thus suitable for inserting into the middle of a three-part dragon name.

As for the transliteration(s)... oy. According to the Wiktionary entry linked above, there are (at least) eight different possibilities, depending on whether you go with anachronistic modern Pinyin (which NN seems to slightly prefer, though she removes the tonal diacritics) or the somewhat more period-authetic Wade-Giles (which she tends to streamline even further). I don't know enough about Mandarin to have any idea why so many different pronunciations are listed-- and they *are* all listed as Mandarin, so it's not a regional dialect issue.

Pinyin	Wade-Giles	streamlined WG
dì	ti4	ti
què	ch'üeh4	chueh
sháo	shao2	shao
shuò	shuo4	shuo
xiào	hsiao4	hsiao

-- Wombat1138 16:47, 14 August 2010 (PDT)